","heading":"","fullWindow":false,"fullBleed":false,"showFullBleedOnMobile":false,"headColor":"","type":"html5mobile","textColor":"","mobileImageUrl":"","bgColor":"","imageUrl":"","registeredOnly":false,"linkUrl":"","internalScroll":false,"displayStyle":"small-up"},{"text":"I talked to agents who simply couldn’t comprehend a client leaving that much money on the table and I presume some eyebrows were raised at the players association office, as well.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"type":"ad","heading":"ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW","name":"ArticleSecondBigBox","display":"medium-down","pos":"2","interstitial":true,"sizes":[[300,250]]},{"text":"It’s kind of telling that no player – not Leonard, not Durant, not Kyrie Irving, not Jimmy Butler to name just four – got every last dollar they could have out of the market. 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Look at what they got and they still have a wonderful asset in Russell Westbrook to turn into to even more future promise and current players and they undoubtedly took an immediate hit but they’re better prepared for the longer term future than either the Raptors or the Clippers.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"This has been a fascinating thing to watch unfold since June 30, it ended with as much drama, intrigue and twists as you’d want.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"type":"ad","heading":"ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW","name":"ArticleThirdBigBox","display":"medium-down","pos":"3","interstitial":true,"sizes":[[300,250]]},{"text":"But, thankfully, it has ended.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"As a last thought, this.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"No matter how this thing ended -- and things in professional sports never, ever end in a good way for everybody – there can be no denying what Leonard helped do here and how he did it.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"He showed up, he worked hard, he never complained and he never promised anything. 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He did was he was contracted to do, helped bring the team to unprecedented heights in a truly magical year.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"You should think about that rather than the last week, I believe.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"type":"textBreakPoint","insertAt":"contentLongBreakPoint"},{"text":"-","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"Ball Four may not have been the first sports book I read but it was absolutely the first sports book I read that peeled back the curtain on baseball and, to this day, when something happens and we’re headed out, I might say to the group, ‘okay, le’s go pound some Budweisers.’","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"I remember the book being laugh-out-loud funny in spots, relevatory in others and, yeah, back in 1970 it was a bit salacious in other spots.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"It was outstanding and I wonder if we went back and read it today, how it would have stood the test of time.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"But more than that, the book was the first true “inside look” at the game that I can remember and it spawned a generation of similar efforts that enriched the sports book industry beyond your imagination.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"type":"cta","buttonText":"Sign Up Now","buttonLink":"/emails.html?nsrc=article-inline-dougsmith","description":"Read exclusive analysis every week from the reporter who's been covering the Raptors since the beginning with Doug Smith's email newsletter.","title":"Get more Raptors insight in your inbox"},{"text":"I never had a chance to meet Jim Bouton and that’s too bad because I would have liked to thank him.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"RIP, Jim.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"-","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"Yes, the Amber Alert woke me in the middle of the night.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"No, I’m not the least bit upset about it, nor was I when the phone buzzed.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"You shouldn’t have been either.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"Hopefully we’ve collectively shamed into silence those who have bothered 911 or the other emergency services in the wake of other alerts.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"type":"relatedStories","relatedStories":[]},{"text":"Good for us.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"-","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"If you want to load up the mailbag just a bit more today, that’d be okay with me.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"Click on askdoug@thestar.ca and fire away, I’ll be here for you.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"Or something like that.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"-","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"So, Quebec City for Raptors training camp?","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"That’s outstanding. Been years since I’ve been in that great city and I hope a return trip is full of cool history, great meals, nice weather and a chance to at least expand my rudimentary French language skills.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"text":"Oh, and it potentially being the 25th training camp appearance in row running the game of Toronto to Barrie to Buffalo to Treviso to Vancouver and other destinations, that’s kind of cool, too.","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"type":"textBreakPoint","insertAt":"contentEndBreakPoint"},{"text":"-","type":"text","isParagraph":true},{"type":"shareBar"},{"type":"trustbar"}],"assetTags":["doug_smith"],"seoKeywords":"","excludeInRecommendations":false,"promo":[],"related":{"pubdays":0,"strategy":0},"seoHead":"Kawhi-apalooza is over and it ended strangely","headline":"Kawhi-apalooza is over and it ended strangely","removeInterestedInFlag":true,"canonicalUrl":"https://www.thestar.com/sports/doug_smiths_sports_blog/2019/07/11/kawhi-apalooza-is-over-and-it-ended-strangely.html","publishedepoch":1562846953647,"lastmodifiedepoch":1562853411921,"abstractVisible":false,"abstract":"","paywallMode":"metered","storyuuid":"8afe42bb-bff7-407a-b513-995f5d575ad2","republish":true,"trustlabel":{"name":"Opinion","link":"https://www.thestar.com/trust/glossary.html","description":"Based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events.","type":"trust"},"lastmodified":"07 11 2019","lastreplicated":"Thu., July 11, 2019","readtime":4,"breadcrumbs":[{"label":"Sports","relurl":"/sports","url":"https://www.thestar.com/content/thestar/sports.html"},{"label":"Doug Smith's Blog","relurl":"/sports/doug_smiths_sports_blog","url":"https://www.thestar.com/content/thestar/sports/doug_smiths_sports_blog.html"}],"authors":[{"janrainUuid":"5a8a80c1-dde1-47f1-84da-870dff2138f5","author":"Doug Smith","photo":{"origImageSize":"800x500","lastmodified":2700061000,"url":"/content/dam/thestar/columnist_logos/Smith_Doug_logo2015W.jpg","sizes":{"1:1":{"small":"https://images.thestar.com/SLYlcdVkZGZpot5wARkMAHlI4uU=/100x100/smart/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/columnist_logos/Smith_Doug_logo2015W.jpg"},"3:2":{"small":"https://images.thestar.com/1rRmBQGdoSrz1grlbuoU_2mONKw=/114x76/smart/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/columnist_logos/Smith_Doug_logo2015W.jpg","medium":"https://images.thestar.com/yYlNfz9nho2gTjEjZ_UB5MrSJIY=/330x220/smart/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/columnist_logos/Smith_Doug_logo2015W.jpg","large":"https://images.thestar.com/aukDJEO1lrwTnG5JQs8D0XKJvm8=/690x460/smart/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/columnist_logos/Smith_Doug_logo2015W.jpg"},"21:9":{"large":"https://images.thestar.com/I3U7JI6l9iQx21XlocQUtPLlzxM=/1080x460/smart/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/columnist_logos/Smith_Doug_logo2015W.jpg"}}},"location":"Toronto","tag":"doug_smith","credit":"Sports Reporter","twitterId":"SmithRaps","email":"dgsmith@thestar.ca"}],"paywall":true,"ogUrlMetatag":"https://www.thestar.com/sports/doug_smiths_sports_blog/2019/07/11/kawhi-apalooza-is-over-and-it-ended-strangely.html","numOfParagraphs":42,"liftigImage":{"captionPosition":"overlay","fullWindowMainart":false,"type":"image","origImageSize":"1200x866","cropthumb":"0,159,1200,834","lastmodified":1562886819025,"forceoriginal":false,"caption":" ","source":" ","credit":" ","url":"/content/dam/thestar/sports/basketball/2019/07/09/kawhi-leonard-and-clippers-to-play-exhibition-game-in-vancouver/kawhi_for_metro.jpg","mainartSize":"medium","renditions":[{"url":"https://images.thestar.com/7xt2Ej6Qe29By6PvRW4jGaLa5Sg=/0x159:1200x834/93x52/smart/filters:cb(1562886819025)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/sports/basketball/2019/07/09/kawhi-leonard-and-clippers-to-play-exhibition-game-in-vancouver/kawhi_for_metro.jpg","width":93,"height":52,"scalefactor":8,"aspect":"wide"}]},"seopublisheddate":"2019-07-11","seomodifieddate":"2019-07-11T13:57:04.260Z","primarylabel":{"label":"Doug Smith's Blog","relurl":"/sports/doug_smiths_sports_blog","url":"https://www.thestar.com/content/thestar/sports/doug_smiths_sports_blog.html"},"totalParas":0,"additionalEvents":",event29"}
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Kawhi-apalooza is over and it ended strangely

Okay, I think after today we can all and sundry mentions, comments, discussions of Kawhi-apalooza and move on with our collective lives for a couple of months.

Deal? Besides, we have to move on to more pressing matters, like what the first game here with Giannis will be like in the 2021-22 season.

But, first …

Wow.

Only doing a two-plus-one deal with the Clippers sure caught everyone I talked to by surprise and once again proved Leonard is impossible to read and to think you can is folly.

But a lot of people were combination of mystified and perturbed by the move and some were kind of thankful it ended as it did.

I talked to agents who simply couldn’t comprehend a client leaving that much money on the table and I presume some eyebrows were raised at the players association office, as well.

It’s kind of telling that no player – not Leonard, not Durant, not Kyrie Irving, not Jimmy Butler to name just four – got every last dollar they could have out of the market. Not sure if that means the market is flawed or just too full of money but I do think it means something.

What it also means, to me in the immediate moment at least, is that the Clippers got used and a bit played and now the pressure on them to win big and win fast is astronomical. It was one thing to pay the highest price ever paid by an NBA team on the trade market – basically two good players and a decade of draft picks to get the one guy the guy you wanted demanded you get – when the expectation was you’ve have Leonard for four year, a much longer time to win championships than just two.

I don’t know for 100 per cent that they knew they were only going two years guaranteed and if they did, wow, are they riverboat gamblers. If they didn’t, they got played.

I know they got the best player in the deal, the best two, actually and that has to be taken into consideration but so does the price and the cost-benefit analysis of having to do this all over again in two years with a cupboard bare of assets cannot be alluring.

The Raptors? Sure, they would have loved to have Leonard for two years or five years, that was the goal all along but I do think you have to give Masai credit for bailing on the process when things seemed to be spinning out of control.

The Thunder? Look at what they got and they still have a wonderful asset in Russell Westbrook to turn into to even more future promise and current players and they undoubtedly took an immediate hit but they’re better prepared for the longer term future than either the Raptors or the Clippers.

This has been a fascinating thing to watch unfold since June 30, it ended with as much drama, intrigue and twists as you’d want.

But, thankfully, it has ended.

As a last thought, this.

No matter how this thing ended -- and things in professional sports never, ever end in a good way for everybody – there can be no denying what Leonard helped do here and how he did it.

He showed up, he worked hard, he never complained and he never promised anything. He managed himself and his circumstances and his place on the team wonderfully and is play in the playoffs was other-worldly.

He may not have been the most personable of players we’ve ever seen but who cares? He did was he was contracted to do, helped bring the team to unprecedented heights in a truly magical year.

You should think about that rather than the last week, I believe.

-

Ball Four may not have been the first sports book I read but it was absolutely the first sports book I read that peeled back the curtain on baseball and, to this day, when something happens and we’re headed out, I might say to the group, ‘okay, le’s go pound some Budweisers.’

I remember the book being laugh-out-loud funny in spots, relevatory in others and, yeah, back in 1970 it was a bit salacious in other spots.

It was outstanding and I wonder if we went back and read it today, how it would have stood the test of time.

But more than that, the book was the first true “inside look” at the game that I can remember and it spawned a generation of similar efforts that enriched the sports book industry beyond your imagination.

Get more Raptors insight in your inbox

Read exclusive analysis every week from the reporter who's been covering the Raptors since the beginning with Doug Smith's email newsletter.

That’s outstanding. Been years since I’ve been in that great city and I hope a return trip is full of cool history, great meals, nice weather and a chance to at least expand my rudimentary French language skills.

Oh, and it potentially being the 25th training camp appearance in row running the game of Toronto to Barrie to Buffalo to Treviso to Vancouver and other destinations, that’s kind of cool, too.

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